The Shanghai Composite index was down 0.35% or 7.10 points to 2,016.30.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.09% or 18.75 points to 21,363.97.

South Korea's Kospi was trading 0.03% lower or 0.60 points to 1,874.88.

In Japan, a victory on Sunday will give Prime Minister Shinzo Abe control of the upper house of parliament. His Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) already has a majority in the lower house of the parliament

A big victory for Abe would allow him to prioritise nationalist policies at the expense of painful structural reform, though the markets are hopeful such an outcome will not materialize, Reuters reported.

On Wall Street, indices ended higher with the Dow and S&P 500 logging record highs.

Government data showed that weekly jobless claims in the US dropped to their lowest level in four months. Elsewhere, business activity in the mid-Atlantic region jumped to its best level since March 2011, according to a survey by the Philadelphia Federal Reserve.

Consumer electronics major Sharp came off its early highs but was still trading 1.5% higher on news that it is considering raising funds through a private placement to building and housing materials firm Lixil Group and power tools manufacturer Makita. Lixil gained 1.3% while Makita shed 1.4%.

Panasonic gained 1.3% on news that its subsidiary Sanyo will pay $56.5m in fines in the US for their involvement in a price-fixing case involving automotive parts and notebook computer battery cells.

LCD panel maker LG Diplay shed 1%, reversing a 2% gain after it reported that profits in the April to June second quarter surged 53%, boosted by a higher demand for large screens used in television sets.

Korea Electric Power and Korea Plant Serve and Engineering added 0.2% each. South Korea's power regulator announced that two nuclear power plants would be restarted this week.